Jokers Wild
KC tries to be really, really funny.
3/29-4/1
Montreal and Aspen, Colorado, well-known for their comedy festivals, are meccas for the amusing and the amused. Kansas City tries to catch up with its inaugural Comedy Arts Fest, which starts Tuesday at Stanford's Comedy Club (10635 Floyd in Overland Park) with a night of open-mike performances and pseudo-sitcom pilots. Wednesday's bill at Westport Coffee House (4010 Pennsylvania, $7) is packed with a stand-up seminar, short films and a show by local improv troupe Hypothetical Seven; meanwhile, at 9 p.m. Jilly's (1744 Broadway, $7) screens films and hosts an open-forum showcase. The laughs continue Thursday at the Westport Coffee House with a 4 p.m. workshop on writing comedy radio, followed by a live remote from all-comedy radio station KCKN 1340. A discussion with the filmmakers behind the zombie musical Song of the Dead leads to the movie's 7:30 p.m. screening at Tivoli Cinemas (4050 Pennsylvania), and the fest comes to a head Friday night at the Uptown Theater (3700 Broadway, $15) with feature-length films, live performances and workshops. Call 816-309-2843. -- Christopher Sebela
Queen Ann
SOMA thinks right is wrong.
TUE 3/29
Ann Coulter has made a career of vilifying liberals as the root of all evil, so her appearance at the Lied Center in Lawrence (1600 Stewart Drive, 785-864-2787) is either blissful ignorance or willful defiance. If the conservative author isn't aware that she is entering a bastion of liberal thought, a protest by the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics will be sure to let her know. SOMA has pooled its resources with other on-campus groups to rally a mass of contrary voices in front of the Lied Center at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, holding up signs with quotes directly from the horse's mouth. We imagine they'll be preaching to the choir. -- Sebela
Beat It
ONGOING
Liquid Buzz, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays on KRBZ 96.5, is our least favorite part of the station's weekly programming. (It comes directly after Lazlo's Hard Drive, which we like best.) But we hope to feel different after Thursdays' $2.25 pitchers at Last Call (729 New Hampshire in Lawrence), where the show's DJ, C-Vaughn, and Syde-Sho.com's Bobby Duracel spin breakbeat, trance and '80s remixes from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. The DJs have made it clear that this event isn't station-managed, so fear not the schwag attacks. Call 785-838-4623. -- Annie Fischer
